AU2018201063A1 - A healthcare appointment system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A system adapted for use in processing healthcare appointments by a user, wherein the system comprises: a server, associated with a database for storing patient information data and patient booking data. The server is adapted to carry out a method comprising the following steps: receiving patient booking data from an input user interface; evaluating availability data of a plurality of healthcare service providers within a predetermined radius of a location of the patient; selecting an available closest healthcare service provider from the input user interface; booking the available closest healthcare service provider, wherein the patient booking data and patient information data is sent to the available closest healthcare service provider via the server; calculating a time of travel between the location of the patient and the available closest healthcare service provider via a map software; notifying the available closest healthcare service provider within a predetermined time to dispatch to the location of the patient. 104 Internet 103 Client Client 1IQ Uroere 11f8 prfosslojial 120 110 112 Patientcare Paont A porpson fadilty booking hookng fr qfor multiple -- 11 Patient by proxy P~lnsb rx

Description

A HEALTHCARE APPOINTMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention may relate to a system adapted for use in processing healthcare appointments by a user. More particularly, the present disclosure may relate to a system for processing optometric appointments by a user for mobilising eye care specialists to treat patients at the location of the patient’s appointment. The present invention may include a process or method derived from the aforementioned system.

[0002] The healthcare appointments may comprise at least one selected from the group of: optometric appointments, dental appointments, chiropractic appointments, ophthalmologic appointments, doctor appointments, physiotherapeutic appointments, podiatric appointments, dietetic appointments, occupational therapeutic appointments, psychologic appointments, natural therapeutic appointments, low vision therapeutic appointments, osteopathic appointments, speech pathologic appointments, acupunctural appointments, remedial massage therapeutic appointments, exercise pathological appointments, radiologic appointments, sonographical appointments, audiologic appointments, educational appointments, nursing appointments, hearing appointments and pharmaceutical appointments.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Currently, it is still usual for a patient to book appointments to see healthcare professionals at the healthcare professional’s workplace and therefore many systems have been developed in relation to this type of system. However, these systems have several major disadvantages.

[0004] One of the major disadvantages of the previous systems has been patient inconvenience. There may be circumstances that patients may require the healthcare patients to visit them. The circumstances may be that the patients have difficulty traversing to the healthcare professional’s place of business. Some patients who may have mobility problems may prefer to be treated at an environment familiar to them and may be more relaxed when being treated by the healthcare professional.

[0005] There have also been previous attempts at developing systems for patients to book appointments to see a healthcare professional, in which the healthcare professional may visit patients. An example of a related system has been disclosed in US Published Patent Application No. 20110105853. A disadvantage with this previous system may be the system receiving inadequate patient information details and/or general patient health data from the patient. As such, the healthcare professional may not have the latest patient information available to them prior to and/or during the testing process.

[0006] There have also been previous attempts at developing web-based systems for providing services to people and sharing information between a service facilitator and at least one service provider. Examples of a related system have been disclosed in US Published Patent Application No. 20020103673 and US Published Patent Application No. 20110066143. A disadvantage with these previous systems may be inadequate patient data shared between other health professionals. As such, the healthcare professional may not make an informed prescription for the patient, in which the prescription may be incompatible with the patient’s other possible diagnosed medical conditions. Further, the system may have limited access to healthcare providers and/or medical providers in relation to ordering prescriptions and/or products based on the medical diagnosis by the healthcare professional. As such, in this previous system, the healthcare professional may be less efficient and may not deliver optimal medical advice and/or prescriptions to patients.

[0007] There is a long felt need for an improved system for mobilising eye care specialists to treat patients at the location of the patient and a system adapted for providing the patient’s eye care prescription information and/or related patient information data to various healthcare providers, relevant healthcare specialists, and/or private insurance providers, which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.

[0008] Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.

SUMMARY

[0009] PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED

[0010] It may be advantageous to provide a system for booking healthcare services.

[0011] It may be an advantage to provide a system for booking optometric services.

[0012] It may be an advantage to provide a system which allows remote booking of optometric services.

[0013] It may be an advantage to provide an efficient appointment system which reduces the potential for loss of revenue for service providers.

[0014] It may be an advantage to allow users of a system to be in a group to ensure that a plurality of users requiring the same service are relatively close together.

[0015] It may be an advantage to provide a system for service providers that go to the location of the patient.

[0016] It may be an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.

[0017] MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM

[0018] A first aspect of the present invention may relate to a system adapted for use in processing electronic healthcare appointments by a user. The system may comprise a server associated with a database for storing patient information data and patient booking data. The server is adapted to carry out a method comprising the following steps: receiving patient booking data from an input user interface; evaluating availability data of a plurality of healthcare service providers within a first predetermined radius of a location of the patient; selecting an available closest healthcare service provider from the input user interface; booking the available closest healthcare service provider, wherein the patient booking data and patient information data is sent to the available closest healthcare service provider via the server; calculating a time of travel between the location of the patient and the available closest healthcare service provider via a map software; notifying the available closest healthcare service provider within a predetermined time to dispatch to the location of the patient. The system may allow patients or consumers to access their own data and consumers may grant access for that data to be shared onwards to an end server which may be managed by our server or by an external server.

[0019] Preferably, the method further comprises scheduling the available closest service provider via an acuity scheduling module on the server to determine when the available closest service provider has been booked.

[0020] Preferably, the method further comprises recording the patient data into the database.

[0021] Preferably, the method further comprises billing the user for at least one of selected from the group of: consultation fee, and prescription fee.

[0022] Preferably, the method further comprises integrating with a device adapted for processing at least one of selected from the group of: payment, and healthfund claims.

[0023] Preferably, the method further comprises searching and comparing the database for prescription availability data of a plurality of prescription suppliers within a second predetermined radius of the location of the patient.

[0024] Preferably, the method further comprises creating a prescription order for a closest prescription supplier when the prescription is unavailable from the plurality of prescription suppliers.

[0025] Preferably, the method further comprises recording the acceptance of the prescription order into the database and tracking the prescription availability data.

[0026] Preferably, the method further comprises sending notification to a mobile device of the user once the prescription is available.

[0027] Preferably, the method further comprises recording in the database the prescription received by the user.

[0028] Preferably, the method further comprises notifying the user of a next appointment time.

[0029] Preferably, the recorded patient information data is at least one of selected from the group of: data, audio data, and video data.

[0030] Preferably, the method further comprises requiring the user to register prior to booking the electronic healthcare appointment.

[0031] Preferably, the method further comprise approving the registration of the user prior to booking the electronic healthcare appointment.

[0032] Preferably, the plurality of healthcare service providers is in communication with the server.

[0033] Preferably, booking the available closest healthcare service provider uses an electronic calendar software.

[0034] Preferably, the map software obtains real-time traffic data from a traffic server via the internet.

[0035] Preferably, the electronic healthcare appointment is an optometry appointment.

[0036] Preferably, the healthcare service provider is an optometry service provider.

[0037] Preferably, the patient information data comprises eye data relating to the patient.

[0038] Preferably, the optometry service provider is adapted to input new patient information data to the server.

[0039] Preferably, the optometry service provider is adapted to order optometric prescriptions through the server based on patient information data.

[0040] A second aspect of the present invention may relate to a system adapted for use in processing heathcare appointments by a user. The system may comprise a server, in which the server may store patient information data and patient booking data. The server may compare patient booking data to availability data of a plurality of service providers within a predetermined radius of a location of the patient. The server may be adapted to notify a selected service provider based on patient information data and patient booking data by electronic notification. The selected service provider may select a healthcare professional and the healthcare professional may be dispatched to the location of the patient.

[0041] Preferably, the healthcare appointments comprises at least one selected from the group of: optometric appointments, dental appointments, chiropractic appointments, ophthalmologic appointments, doctor appointments, physiotherapeutic appointments, podiatric appointments, dietetic appointments, occupational therapeutic appointments, psychologic appointments, natural therapeutic appointments, low vision therapeutic appointments, osteopathic appointments, speech pathologic appointments, acupunctural appointments, remedial massage therapeutic appointments, exercise pathological appointments, radiologic appointments, sonographical appointments, audiologic appointments, educational appointments, nursing appointments, hearing appointments and pharmaceutical appointments.

[0042] Preferably, the patient information data may comprise eye data relating to the patient.

[0043] Preferably, the selected service provider may be adapted to input new patient information data to the server, after the selected service provider may have provided optometric service to the patient, and further wherein the healthcare appointments are optometric appointments.

[0044] Preferably, the selected service provider may be adapted to order optometric products through the server based on patient information data.

[0045] Preferably, the system additionally comprises at least one calculating means, wherein the system calculates LogMAR and is adapted to include the calculated LogMAR in the patient information data.

[0046] Preferably, the user may be selected from at least one of; a patient, a guardian of the patient, and an administrator from a patient caring facility caring for a plurality of patients.

[0047] Preferably, when the selected service provider may be dispatched to the locations of at least two or more patients, the first location of the first patient may be within a predetermined distance of the second location of the second patient.

[0048] Preferably, when the selected service provider may be dispatched to the locations of at least three or more patients, the distance between the first location to the second location is less than the distance of first location to the third location; in which the distance between the second location and the third location is less than the distance between the first location and the third location.

[0049] Preferably, the selected service provider may rank the locations of the at least three patients, such that the first location of the first patient may be proximal to the second location of the second patient, and wherein the first location of the first patient may be distal to the third location of the third patient.

[0050] Preferably, the optometric appointment to the patients may be similar in optometric service relative to each other.

[0051] Preferably, the server may be adapted to group optometric appointments according to relative similarity in optometric service, such that a first selected service provider may be dispatched to the first location of the first patient, and a second selected service provider may be dispatched to the second location of the second patient, wherein the first optometric service may be dissimilar to the second optometric service.

[0052] Preferably, the selected service provider may be dispatched to the group of optometric appointments when there are at least six optometric appointments.

[0053] In the context of the present invention, the words “comprise”, “comprising” and the like are to be construed in their inclusive, as opposed to their exclusive, sense, that is in the sense of “including, but not limited to”.

[0054] The invention is to be interpreted with reference to the at least one of the technical problems described or affiliated with the background art. The present aims to solve or ameliorate at least one of the technical problems and this may result in one or more advantageous effects as defined by this specification and described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0055] Figure 1 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a booking system for an optometric appointment.

[0056] Figure 2A depicts a first portion of a flowchart of an embodiment of a booking system of the present disclosure and is to be viewed in combination with Figure 2B.

[0057] Figure 2B depicts a second portion of a flowchart of an embodiment of a booking system of the present disclosure and is to be viewed in combination with Figure 2 A.

[0058] Figure 3 depicts a flowchart of another embodiment of a booking system of the present disclosure.

[0059] Figure 4 depicts a calculating means for use with an embodiment of a booking system of the present disclosure.

[0060] Figure 5 depicts another calculating means for use with an embodiment of a booking system of the present disclosure.

[0061] Figure 6 depicts a further calculating means for use with an embodiment of a booking system of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0062] Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings and non-limiting examples.

[0063] In a first preferred embodiment of the present invention, there may be provided a system 100 for use in processing healthcare appointments by a user. As illustrated in Figure 1, the system 100 may be associated with a database 102 for system may first collect patient data from MyHealth™ Record or may collect the patient’s existing medical record from professionals. The system may send patient’s medical record to the healthcare professional if the General Practitioner requests for the patient’s medical history/ medical release. After the collection of patient data, the system may store patient information data and patient booking data. The server 102 may be adapted to cany out a method comprising the following steps: receiving patient booking data from an input user interface; evaluating availability data of a plurality of healthcare service providers within a predetermined radius of a location of the patient; selecting an available closest healthcare service provider from the input user interface; booking the available closest healthcare service provider, wherein the patient booking data and patient information data is sent to the available closest healthcare service provider via the server 102; the healthcare service providers around the location of the patients may be notified from the patient’s request. The healthcare service providers may bid to accept for the services according their radius and time availability. Patients may be notified by various offers from the healthcare professionals. Patients or their next of kin may then view health professionals profiles and may choose the most suitable healthcare service provider and accepting the best service provider’s bid. The system may calculate a time of travel between the location of the patient and the available closest healthcare service provider via a map software; notifying the available closest healthcare service provider within a predetermined time to dispatch to the location of the patient.

[0064] The method may further comprise scheduling the available closest service provider using via the server’s calendar scheduling module on the server to determine when the available closest service provider may have been booked. Following the booking of the available closest service provider, the method may further comprise recording the patient data into the database. The available closest service provider is dispatched to the location of the patient and the patient is consulted. During the consultation, healthcare related tests may be performed on the patient. Following the tests, results from the tests may be obtained. Depending on the results of the tests, the patient may or may not require healthcare products or prescriptions. The patient may be billed for the consultation fee and/or prescription fee, if required. The consultation fee may be paid prior to the service via the consumer’s credit card/EFTPOS™ if they may have pre-booked online. The system may be integrated with a device adapted for processing payment and/or healthfund claims. When the patient requires prescriptions, the system may search and compare the database for prescription availability data of a plurality of prescription suppliers within a second predetermined radius of the location of the patient. It may be preferable to search and compare the plurality of prescription suppliers from nearest to furthest. It may happen that the prescription or products may not be in stock of the closest prescription supplier and so the next closest prescription supplier’s inventory and stock may be searched and compared. When all of the prescription suppliers on the system which are all connected to the server do not have the patient’s prescription, the server may create a prescription order for the closest prescription supplier.

[0065] Once the prescription order have been accepted by the closest prescription supplier, the data is then recorded into the server and the status of the prescription is also recorded. The prescription availability data may be tracked by the server. The server may send a notification to a mobile device of the user once the prescription may be available for patient pick-up or delivered to the patient’s location. Once the product or prescription have been received by the user or patient, the system may record that there is no pending prescription products for the user or patient.

[0066] The server may notify the user or patient of a next appointment time such that it may decrease the likelihood of irregular patient check-ups, in which the irregular patient check up may be a long period between check-ups or consultations.

[0067] During the consultations, the healthcare service provider may choose to enter or type patient information data into the database or the consultation may be audio and/or video recorded, in which the audio and/or video recording may be uploaded into the database.

[0068] The system may require a patient or user to create a profile and be registered prior to making any electronic healthcare appointment. It may be an advantage to provide a system that can approve the registration of the user by comparing and checking on the database whether the same user had already been registered. This may reduce duplicated accounts or profiles and other unverified accounts or profiles.

[0069] It may be preferred that a plurality of healthcare service providers is in communication with the server for easy managing and maintenance. It may allow relatively easier searching and evaluating availability of inventory stock as well as availability of professionals or personnels.

[0070] The healthcare service provider may use an electronic calendar software to allow easy retrieval and organisation of patient appointments via the internet. The system may send a notification to a mobile device of the healthcare service provider prior to the scheduled patient appointment time. The system may be integrated with the map software such as GOOGLE Maps™ that may obtain real-time traffic data from a traffic server via the internet. The timing of the notification to the mobile device of the healthcare service provider may remind the healthcare professional to get ready to be dispatched such that the healthcare professional may travel to the patient’s location in time.

[0071] In a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, there may be provided a system 100 for use in processing healthcare appointments by a user 102. As illustrated in Figure 1, the system 100 may comprise a server 102, in which the server 102 or database 102 may store and provide patient information data, patient booking data, service provider and staff data, other healthcare professional data and other optical service provider’s data. The server 102 may also share patient information data to other healthcare professionals and optical service providers. The system may allow healthcare professionals to create a patient’s health summary and the patient’s health summary may be faxed or email or upload on the server. The report may be available for other approved general practitioners or healthcare specialists to view, and upon reviewing the report, the approved general practitioners or healthcare specialists may prescribe treatment and may issue a referral for the patient. The system may have a summary or a list of the referral for the patient or the healthcare professional to track the status of the referral. The system may also allow the patient to view whether the referral may have been accepted, viewed or implemented by other health professionals. The system may show the date at which the appointment was established or not.

[0072] The healthcare appointments may comprise at least one selected from the group of: optometric appointments, dental appointments, chiropractic appointments, ophthalmologic appointments, doctor appointments, physiotherapeutic appointments, podiatric appointments, dietetic appointments, occupational therapeutic appointments, psychologic appointments, natural therapeutic appointments, low vision therapeutic appointments, osteopathic appointments, speech pathologic appointments, acupunctural appointments, remedial massage therapeutic appointments, exercise pathological appointments, radiologic appointments, sonographical appointments, audiologic appointments, educational appointments, hearing appointments, nursing appointments and pharmaceutical appointments. It will be appreciated that the word “comprise” is to be construed in their inclusive, as opposed to their exclusive, sense, that is in the sense of “including, but not limited to”. The example of a system 100 for use in processing optometric appointments by a user have been disclosed. In the spirit of the current disclosure, the system 100 may be similarly applied for use in processing other healthcare related appointments by a user.

[0073] The server 102 may store, record, host, deliver and manage data inputted and/or retrieved by one or more client computers 106, 116, which may be controlled by users 108 and/or staff members 120 of medical service providers 118. The system 100 may work when the client computer 106, 116 sends a process request to the server 102 over the internet connection 104. When the process request has been granted, the information or data request may be delivered to the client. The server 102 may accommodate or manage a plurality of clients simultaneously. The server 102 may interact with many simultaneous users 108 via web page or internet based portal. The user 108 may also be a patient 110, or may be a person booking by proxy for a patient on the patient’s behalf 112 (such as an authorised carer, guardian, parent, or delegate), or a manager or an administrator working for a patient care facility booking by proxy for a group of patients 114. The user 108 may also be an aged care staff, or power of attorney, or next of kin. The user 108 may also be healthcare professional 120. The person booking by proxy for a patient 114 may be a guardian, or a relative, or an authorised acquaintance of the patient. The patient care facility may be a hospital, nursing home, surgical centre, and aged care facility, or financial organisation or any organisation and/or an institution that look after a number of persons, patients and/or residents. The service provider 118 may be a mobile service provider 118 that may provide healthcare services. For example, a mobile service provider 118 may be Mobile Eye Clinic, in which a healthcare professional 120 or an optometrist is a staff member of the mobile service provider 118 or affiliated with the mobile service provider 118.

[0074] The information stored in the server 102 may be patient information data which may be selected from at least one of; a system user data, medical history data, and general information data. The medical history data 112 may include general or specific medical information relating to the patient. For example, in the context of optometry, specific medical information may include eye examination observation information, eye care prescriptions, optometric images such as retinal scan information, and the patient’s general health condition and eye health information.

[0075] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, as illustrated in Figure 2A, the system 200 may be adapted to allow a registered user 216 of the system to make healthcare appointments or bookings through the internet 104, in which the data or information is requested or delivered between the user 102 and the server 104. If the user 108 is not registered on the server 204, the server 204 may require the unregistered user to register 208 on the system. 200. The system 200 may also request the unregistered user to fill in an Individual Health Identifier (IHI) 210, in which the system 200 checks whether the IHI already exists in the system 200. If the IHI does not exist in the system 200, the system 200 may request the user 202 to fill in the adequate details in the questionnaire 214 to generate an up to date patient profile in the server 102. The system integrate with HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Specification (FHIR) to obtain patient data. The patient profile data may also be referred to as patient information data. The patient information data may be accessed by an authorised healthcare professional, for example, an optometrist 120 who may be visiting the patient in their care. If the registered user is from a patient care facility, and that the patient care facility has another facility located in a different location, the server may request the user to register another patient care facility. The registration details for the user to input to the server may include but not limited to; entering the name of the facility, job title, contact details, addresses and name of organisation. Details entered into the server may also be referred to as data. Similarly, the system may allow a user such as a person to book for a patient by proxy, or the user may be the patient in which the patient can input patient registration data in the form of a questionnaire.

[0076] The information or data in the responses of the questionnaire 214 may comprise the patient’s last eye specialist details, next appointment details, previous eye test results and/or recommendations from the last eye specialist, next of kin details, and other general information that may be important for the next eye specialist to know; such that the eye specialist may be able to communicate with relevant individual(s) whenever necessary. When the user complete certain details in the questionnaire 214, if appropriate, a consent form may be electronically sent to the user for the patient to authorise. Completed consent forms may be uploaded to the server 200 linked to the patient information data. The server may pop up terms and conditions to the user, and allow the user to click agree to the terms and conditions before registration If no consent by the user has been obtained by a predetermined time, the system 200 may send reminders to the user to complete the consent form. The healthcare professional and/or eye specialist may see the responses of the questionnaire 214 prior to patient visitation. When there are pending consent forms yet to be authorised, the healthcare professional and/or eye specialist may seek the patient’s authorisation before performing general and/or specific medical tests to the patient. For example, if the healthcare professional is an eye specialist, the eye specialist may perform eye tests to the patient. The healthcare professional and/or eye specialist appointed by the system 200 to visit the patient may or may not be the same healthcare professional and/or eye specialist as the previous healthcare professional and/or eye specialist. It will be appreciated that the information in the responses to the questionnaire will provide the healthcare professional and/or eye specialist, which may be an optometrist, the prior patient information data to continue from previous eye tests efficiently.

[0077] The system may send an email confirmation to the user confirming the user registration. The patient or the patient’s next of the kin may be allowed to book appointment without creating an account. The registered user 216 may then be allowed to book an appointment with the mobile service provider 118 such as mobile eye clinic (MEC) if the patient requests eye care services. The appointment may be adapted to be a booking for medical services in the field of healthcare, more particularly, in the field of optometry. The optometry services may include but is not limited to: eye surgery, eye tests, eye care, eye care prescriptions and/or medications for the eye. The user booking data 206 which may be patient booking data is sent as a request to the server 102. The patient booking data 206 may indicate the patient’s preferred date, time and location, as well as the type of service 218. The preferred location may be at the patient’s home or the patient’s workplace or the patient’s hospital or aged care facility, or at any place convenient to be visited by the Optometrist. The appointment data may be sent to the server by electronic notification.

[0078] The system 200 may check and compare the patient booking data to availability data of a plurality of service providers. The healthcare service providers may be individual optometrists or optometrists working for a company, in which the company is mobile eye clinic or affiliated with mobile eye clinic. The system 200 may be adapted to select or book a selected service provider from a plurality of service providers based on the patient booking data. The system 200 may select a service provider 222 that has a professional or staff matching the expertise as per the booking request. Alternatively, the user may select a service provider 222 that has a professional or staff who may have treated and/or visited the patient before. The system may allow senior Aged care staffs or organisation staffs or patient or patient family to select or invite their preferred service providers to create account and join the system. The preferred providers may need to provide references or upload their references to the system, in which the system may evaluate from the provided references whether the provided references satisfies the requirement to identify and verify a person. For example, in Australia, the personal identification system may be whether the total of the provided references reaches the minimum 100 points identification check or whether the preferred providers may have been background checked by authorities such as police before the preferred providers may be eligible to provide services to other patients in the system. The user may indicate in the patient booking data, the name of the service provider 222 and/or the name of the professional or staff. Based on the user’s choice indicated in the patient booking data, the system 200 may select the chosen service provider 222. The system 200 may be in communication with the selected professional’s availability, and notify the user the available dates and times that the selected professional is available. When the user has confirmed the booking, the selected service provider 222 may dispatch the selected professional or staff to the location of the patient at the scheduled time. Regardless of whether the system 200 selects a service provider 222 or the user selects a service provider 222, the selected service provider 222 may dispatch the professional to the location as indicated in the patient booking request. The selection may be based on the service provider being within a predetermined radius of a location of the patient. The predetermined radius may be at any distance. This distance may be when a patient may have specifically selected a relatively far away service provider 222 that the patient may prefer to be visited by the selected professional. When the system 200 may have selected the service provider 222, the predetermined radius may be within a hundred kilometres from the first patient location. Preferably, the predetermined radius may be within fifty kilometres from the first patient location. More preferably, the predetermined radius may be within twenty kilometres from the first patient location. Most preferably, the predetermined radius may be within ten kilometres from the first patient location. If the mobile service provider is outside a predetermined radius of the location indicated by the patient booking data, the nearest service provider may be selected. Alternatively, the service provider may be based on the bid and availability of healthcare providers. The system 200 may place the patient in a list. The list may contain other booking slots to be booked by another patient requesting the same or similar service on the same day 248. The similar service may be determined as similar in requirement and/or attention by the healthcare professional, such as an optometrist during the visitation eye test session. The system 200 may allocate the patients booking for similar services to be in the same group or list 252, 254. The service provider may be mobile and may be dispatched to the location indicated by the user. If the selected service provider is not available to see the patient as per the booking request, the selected service provider may send an electronic notification to the user suggesting an alternative visitation date and/or time. The system 200 may request confirmation of the revised patient booking data to the user. If the revised patient booking data is accepted by the user, the revised patient booking data may be updated in the server.

[0079] The selected mobile service provider 118 may appoint and/or dispatch the healthcare professional such as an optometrist. The selected optometrist may visit more than one patient during the patient visitation expedition. Although more than one patient on the list is preferred, the system 200 may be adapted to notify the selected healthcare professional depending on various circumstances. The selected healthcare professional may be an optometrist 222 selected to visit a patient that requires eye care services. Such notification may be achieved via instant messaging, TXT message, recorded phone message, or email.

[0080] The selected health care professional such as an optometrist may perform an eye test to the patient 224 based on at least one of the following patient information data: the patient’s distance vision history, whether the patient has a glare problem, the patient’s near vision performance, the patient’s reading choice and posture while working or relaxing, estimated time spent looking at monitors of computer related devices, the patient’s current distance vision acuity (V/A) with/without vision aids, and the patient’s variable distance vision acuity (V/A) with/without vision aids. The optometrist may perform a variable vision acuity test to the patient. As illustrated in Figure 4, the optometrist may use a calculating means to determine the variable visual acuity of the patient’s eye. The calculating means may measure the Distance logMAR Calculator 400 in the following way: (1) Entering the test distance, in meters, that the patient is away from the chart 402, 404; (2) Noting the size of the letter in Times New Roman pt font as seen in the chart 406, 408; (3) Choosing a V/A denominator 411, in meters, out of one of the following numbers: 3, 3.8, 4.8, 6, 7.5, 9.5, 12,15, 19, 24, 30, 38, 48, 60, 75, 95, 120, 150, 190, 240; In the example illustrated in Figure 4, the number was selected to be 6 meters. (4) Determining the denominator 412 using the formula: (2)/(1) *(3); (5) Determining the Stroke width (min arc) 414 using the formula: (4)/(3) 416; (6) Determining the Distance LogMAR 418 using the formula: (Logio(Stroke width number 416)); (7) Entering goal distance 422, 424; (8) Calculating the magnifying power ratio (Mx) 426 using the formula: (4)/(7) 428; (9) Determining the viewing distance 430, in meters, using the formula: (1)/(8) 432.

[0081] As illustrated in Figure 5, the optometrist may use a calculating means to determine the variable visual acuity of the patient’s eye. The calculating means may measure the Near LogMAR Calculator 500 in the following way: (10) Entering the test distance 502, in centimetres, that the patient is away from the chart; (11) Entering the smallest point size read by the patient 506, in Times New Roman pt font as seen in the chart 508; (12) The point size values 511,512 may be selected from the range between 2 and 80; in which the normal print size may be in the range between 5 and 16; (13) Determining the Decimal Acuity 514 using the formula: (1l)/(10)*(12) 516; (14) Determining the height of letter loop, in minute arc 518 using the formula: 5*(13) 520; (15) Calculating Near LogMAR 524 using the formula: (Logio(Decimal Acuity Number 514)) 526; (16) Entering goal point size 528, in Times New Roman pt font 530; (17) Calculating the magnifying power ratio (Mx) 532 using the formula: (11)/(16) 534; (18) At distance 536, in centimetres, using the formula: (10)/(17); (19) using add, in Dioptres, using the formula: 100/(17) 538; (20) Calculating the two V/A lines spare capacity, Mx 539 using the formula: (17)/0.625 540; (21) At distance 542, in centimetres, using the formula: (18)*0.625; (22) using add, in Dioptres, using the formula: (19)* 1.6 544.

[0082] After the optometrist’s determination of the patient’s visual acuity, a calculation means may be used to calculate the magnifier value of the patient. The program may use at least one of the following parameters: Fa, Fm, Mx, Fe, z, /, /’, A, W, EVP, EVD, and ER; wherein the following parameters may be defined as:

Fa is the accommodation or dioptric power of near spectacle addition;

Fm is the dioptric power of magnifying lens M;

Mx is the time magnification, which may be calculated by the formula: Fm/4; z is the eye to magnifier distance, which may be reported in centimetres; I is the object distance or page-to-magnifier distance); I’ is the image distance from magnifier, which may be calculated by the formula: z - Fa;

L and L ’ may be vergence equivalents of I and I A is the practical aperture of the magnifier, which may be specified in millimetres; W is the linear field of view ignoring peripheral blur from aberrations, which may be specified in millimetres;

Fe is the equivalent power, which may be calculated by the formula:

Fa+Fm-z*Fa*Fm/l 00; EVP is the equivalent viewing power, or Fe; EVD is the equivalent viewing distance, which may be calculated by the formula: 100/EVP, which may be specified in centimetres; ER is the enlargement ratio, comparing EVP with the original Fa value: 25 cm (10”) for Fa = 4.0 DS is not presumed.

[0083] The Optometrist may need to measure z, I and I ’ in cm, A and W in mm for practical use of the program. The Optometrist may need to enter measured values for Fa, Fm, A and z in the program, and the program may correct for appropriate signs of 1’ and 1, when the object and image are both on the page side of the magnifier.

[0084] As illustrated in Figure 6, the calculation of hand magnifier values 600 may be as follows:

If Fa = 0 is entered into the calculating means 602, this value may indicate that the patient is not accommodating, -/ must = 100/Fm (cm) for a focused image. This may mean that -/ ’ = to, or -L’ = 0; Fe - Fa +Fm - z*Fa*Fm. If Fa = 0, z may be irrelevant because Fe = Fm for any value of z. In this case, Mx = Fm/4, regardless of z, for a 25 cm reference distance. The Magnifier may act as a collimator. In the calculation of the Hand Magnifier, Fa = 0 returns Mx = Fm/4 for any value of z, in which the field of view W is correct. In this case, the program may ignore the vergences that give an undefined value.

[0085] The calculation of using a Hand Magnifier 604, which has a Fa value between the range of +2.5 to +6.0 DS; may include the following parameters: (23) Entering spec value near add or accommodation Fa value (DS) 606, 608; (24) Entering magnifier Fm value (DS) 610, 612; (25) Entering aperture diameter A value (mm) 614, 616; (26) Entering eye-to-magnifier distance z (cm) 618, 620; (27) Calculating I ’ (cm) 622 using the formula: (26)-(23) 624, wherein the value places the image at 1/Fa from the eye, which may be necessary for clear vision; (28) Calculating image vergence L ’ (D) 626 using the formula: 100/(27) 628; (29) Calculating object vergence L (D) 630 using the formula: (28)-(24) 632; (30) Calculating Enlargement Ratio ER (L/L’) 634 using the formula: IF(Fa = 0, (24)/4, (29)/(28) 636; (31) Specification of Mx 63 8 using the formula: (24)/4 640; (32) Calculating EVP or Fe (DS) 642 using the formula: (24)+(23)-((26)/100)*(24)*(23) 644; (33) Calculating EVD (cm) 646 using the formula: 100/(32) 648; (34) Calculate linear field of view W (mm) 649 using the formula: (25)/((32)* 10*(26))* 1000 650; the W field may be limited by peripheral aberrations if the value of W is much greater than the value of A. The optometrist may require to double check the useable field by imaging a ruler.

[0086] There may times where users of hand magnifiers may not set the value off precisely 652. As illustrated in Figure 6, the following two examples give the EVP or Fe value for +/- 1.0 D defocus, that is, 1 ’ is too long (smaller Fa value) or I ’ is too short (larger Fa value). The calculation of the EVP value in those circumstances may be as follows: (35) For calculating EVP when the page may be held too distant (/ ’ too long) 654, the EVP value may be calculated using the following formula: (24)+((23)-1 )-(((26)/100)* (24)* (23)-1)) 656;

(36) For calculating EVP when the page may be held too close (F too short) 658, the EVP value may be calculated using the following formula: (24)+((23)+l)-(((26)/100)*(24)*(23)+l)) 660.

[0087] The calculation of using a Stand Magnifier 662, in which the magnifier’s height and the object vergence may be set by the height of the stand. For Eschenbach stand magnifiers, the stand height may be set for aberration control at Fa = 2.5 DS or z-1’ = 40 cm, in which the product specifications give Fe and z, and a calculated Fm. For these stand magnifiers, the optometrist may enter those values and Fa = 2.5 DS in the Hand Magnifier calculator means.

[0088] The calculation means may also prompt the optometrist a reminder 664 that any magnifier of any power held at half its focal length from the page may give the value of 2*ER value. This reminder may allow the optometrist to double check the numbers as entered into the calculation means.

[0089] Based on the patient’s performance in the eye tests, the optometrist may make a prescription and/or recommend a plan 226 to the patient. The details of the visit, prescription and plans 226 may be part of the patient medical record and the summary of the report and may be updated to the patient medical file in the server 228. Patients or patient’s carer and other professionals may access to this summary and view the image of the optical aids in the system when they needed. Sometimes the diagnosis of the test may be beyond the expertise of the dispatched optometrist and a referral may be needed 230.

If a referral may be needed, a referral letter may be generated in the referral section or given to the patient 232. Following the conclusion of the visitation, the client may be billed for the visitation. If no referrals are given to the patient, the optometrist may prescribe the appropriate products and/or medication 236. If prescription may be recommended, the Optometrist may login to the server 202, and order the prescription with an optical supplier 240 and/or medical supplier 240 registered in the system 200.

The patient may be billed for the visitation cost and the cost of ordering the prescription 242. The prescription order status may be sent to the user and/or patient 244 by email and once the prescription is available to pick-up, the prescription may be delivered to the user and/or patient. If the patient was not billed after an order the prescription with an optical supplier 240 and/or medical supplier 240, the patient may be billed before or after the prescription delivery to the patient’s location 246. The system 200 may be adapted to accept payment in full or a Layby payment plan. The Layby payment plan may involve the patient paying the full amount in at least one instalment, in which each instalment may be paid within a predetermined time. For patients who may be eligible to claim Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) from Medicare and Process health fund rebate, the system 200 may allow the eye specialist or optometrist or other eligible health professionals to claim MBS and may process health fund rebate on behalf of patients. The patient may choose to pay the full fee and refund the medicare rebate to the patient’s nominated financial institute. The system may be able to claim health fund rebate on behalf of the patients, if the patient’s health fund details may be in the system.

[0090] Optimally, the first patient booking data of the first patient for the optometry service will be grouped with the second patient booking data of the second patient before the selected service provider visits both patients. In this system 300, the first patient may be placed on a list or group for the service until more patients have been placed in the same group. As illustrated in Figure 3, besides the system’s 300 adaptability to group patients in relation to similar services required 302, the system 300 may be also adapted to order or rank the locations ftom the patient booking data in the list 304, 306, 308 with respect to travel efficiency for the Optometrist. For example, if the group has three patient locations, the server may rank the patient locations with respect to the Optometrist’s travel distance between locations from closest to furthest with respect to the first patient’s location and the next patient’s location 310. That is 312, the distance from Patient A’s location 304 to Patient B’s location 306 is less than Patient A’s location 304 to Patient C’s location 308; in which the distance from Patient B’s location 306 to Patient C’s location 308 is less than Patient A’s location 304 to Patient’s C’s location 308.

[0091] The system 300 may also calculate the estimated travelling time between patients and session time between patients to provide the revised expected time of the optometrist’s arrival 314. The predetermined number of patients that the optometrist can visit may be calculated based on at least one of the following variables: the estimated travel time from one patient’s location to the next patient’s location, and the estimated session time for a patient, in which the patients are seen within the business hours of the selected mobile service provider. Preferably, the predetermined number of patients on the list is at least six or more before the Optometrist is dispatched to the locations of the patients in the same group. The system 300 may send a revised notification to the patients in the same group notifying the revised expected time of the optometrist’s arrival 316. The system 300 may request the user to confirm the revised patient booking data 318 and may issue the user reminders by email seven days and/or a day prior to the clinic visitation date.

[0092] During the visitation date, the selected service provider dispatches the optometrist to the patient 260, 320 and makes patient visit 322. The selected optometrist performs the test to the patient 262, 324 and after the test, the optometrist may make a prescription and/or recommend a plan 264, 326 to the patient. The details of the visit, prescription and plans 264, 326 are part of the patient medical record and are updated to the patient medical file in the server 266, 328. The system 200, 300 may be adapted to send referral letters to other health professionals if there may be a different medical problem diagnosed by the optometrist, in which the problem is beyond the expertise of the optometrist 268, 330. The system 200, 300 may also be adapted to send the patient’s eye care plan with the manager/administrator of the patient care facility and other vision specialists to assist with the patient’s needs while the patient is in the facility’s care. The system may allow a referral list to record the time at which the referral was generated. The system may record the time at which the referral was viewed, accepted and/or implemented. The system may have a referral status in which the referral status tracks the history and timestamps of when the referral was being viewed, accepted and/or implemented. The optometrist may also communicate via a communications platform and/or the progress note page which may include an attachment of the report/referral letter to be sent to patients/consumers, family members and carers so that they may be able to follow up on the referral. The message in the progress note may be recorded together with the time, date and author at which the message may be created. Once the message in the progress note may have been submitted, the same message may be sent to the family and carers of the patient and/or the patient via email. The family and carers of the patient and/or the patient may be able to reply or comments on the progress note on the same platform or via email. Images, health summary, other documents and voice recordings may be able to be uploaded to the progress note page.

[0093] The communications platform may allow all users invited into the platform to communicate and share information. All user postings on the communications platform may be timestamped and recorded. The system may allow a user to upload or share information and the system may also allow other users to reply to the uploaded message.

It may be an advantage for informing or notifying all relevant users to the patient when it may difficult to have all the relevant users of the patient physically together at the same time.

[0094] The selected service provider may check with local healthcare professional or optometrist’s database and the selected service provider may update the server with health and/or clinical data received from the local healthcare professional or optometrist. The selected service provider may prescribe medicine and/or prescription eye care products after the consultation session. The prescription information from the consultation session may be uploaded into the progress note page. The selected service provider may also check or consult with other health professionals such that the optometrist may be better informed about prescribing certain prescriptions and/or products. Other health professionals may include but is not limited to: optometrists, dentists, chiropractors, ophthalmologists, general practitioners / doctors, physiotherapists, podiatrists, dietitians, occupational therapists, psychologists, natural therapists, low vision therapists, osteotherapists, speech pathologists, acupuncturists, remedial massage therapists, exercise pathologists, radiologic technologists, sonographer, audiologists, educators, pharmacists, orientation and mobility instructors, occupational therapists, registered nurses, nursing staffs, hearing staff and medical specialists.

[0095] If a referral may be needed, a referral letter may be uploaded onto the system in referral list 270, 332. The referral letter may be able to send or email to the patient/consumer’s preferred ophthalmologist. The system may allow granted referred ophthalmologist to access to medical/clinical data of the patient for treatment and diagnosis purposes. Granting of referred ophthalmologist may be selected and/or approved by the server administrator, in which the server administrator may assess the qualifications, references and verification of the identity of the referred healthcare practitioner via the 100 points identification check before the referred healthcare practitioner may be able to access the data using the system. Or the preferred ophthalmologist may be invited previously by patient or patient family. The healthcare professional or optometrist may add comments and/or file notes to the server in relation to the patient information data. Following the conclusion of the visitation, the client may be billed for the visitation 272, 334. If no referrals are given to the patient, the healthcare professional or optometrist may prescribe the appropriate products and/or medication 274, 336. If prescription is recommended, the healthcare professional or Optometrist may login to the server, and order the medical prescription with an optical supplier 276, 338 and/or medical supplier 276, 338 registered in the system 200, 300. The supplier 276, 338 may include but is not limited to: pharmacies, vision aids prescription lens manufacturers, and eyewear products. The patient may be selectively billed for the visitation cost and/or the cost of ordering the relevant prescription 340. The system 300 may be adapted to accept payment in full or a Layby payment plan. The Layby payment plan may involve the patient paying the full amount in at least one instalment, in which each instalment may be paid within a predetermined time. For patients who may be eligible to claim Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) from Medicare and Process health fund rebate, the system 300 may allow the healthcare professional and/or eye specialist or optometrist to claim MBS and process health fund rebate on behalf of patients.

[0096] Following the prescription order, the prescription order status may be sent to the user and/or patient 278, 342 by email and once the prescription is available to pick-up, the prescription is delivered to the user and/or patient 280, 344. If the patient was not billed after an order the medical prescription with an optical supplier 276, 338 and/or medical supplier 276, 338, the patient may be billed after the prescription delivery to the patient’s location 282, 344. The healthcare professional or Optometrist may check whether the last patient visited is the final patient in the group 284, 346. If yes, the healthcare professional or optometrist concludes the service and returns back to the selected service provider or mobile eye clinic 288, 350. If there are more patients to see

in the group, the healthcare professional or optometrist travels to visit the next patient in the group 286, 348. The healthcare professional or optometrist repeats the visitation process with the next patient until all patients had been visited.

[0097] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of registering an aged care facility in the system may involve the following steps:

[0098] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the client to register a patient for a medical service, more particularly an eye test, may involve the following steps:

[0099] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the client to search for an existing patient by entering known details relating to optometry may involve the following steps:

[00100] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the client to make a booking for a small group eye clinic may involve the following steps:

[00101] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the client to book an individual eye clinic request may involve the following steps:

[00102] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing senior Aged care staffs or organisation staffs or patient or patient family to select their preferred service providers may involve the following steps:

[00103] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the service provider or optometrist to edit their appointment availability times may involve the following steps:

[00104] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the service provider or optometrist to consult a patient that has a booked appointment may involve the following steps:

[00105] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the service provider or optometrist to consult a short consult patient that had visited before may involve the following steps:

[00106] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the service provider or optometrist to order eye glasses or other optical aids may involve the following steps:

[00107] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of tracking the optical order for internal tracking may involve the following steps:

[00108] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of providing a LayBy Option for a user and/or patient may involve the following steps:

[00109] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the Optometrist to claim MBS from Medicare and Process health fund Rebate on behalf of patients may involve the following steps:

[00110] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of prescribing medication for a patient may involve the following steps:

[00111] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of reporting the patient’s eye report to a GP, or Aged Care staff, or Family of the patient, or a specialist may involve the following steps:

[00112] In another embodiment of the

present disclosure, the process of allowing a GP and Ophthalmologist to receive a digital image by email may involve the following steps:

[00113] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of scanning a letter received from a specialist, or other professional to be uploaded to the patient file, may involve the following steps:

[00114] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the Optometrist to give the prescription report to the client and/or patient after patient visitation may involve the following steps:

[00115] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the Optometrist to send an invoice to Age Care Facility and Family of the patient may involve the following steps:

[00116] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the client to view a summary of the eye test reports of the patients in which the patient is under the care of a client may involve the following steps:

[00117] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the Optometrist to send an email reminder to the group of patients due for eye tests may involve the following steps:

[00118] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the Optometrist to edit the patient’s details may involve the following steps:

[00119] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the Client to login to the system with a special and/or unique password may involve the following steps:

[00120] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing a family member or a guardian of the patient to register for the patient may involve the following steps:

[00121] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing a family member or a guardian of the patient to register for the patient may involve the following steps:

[00122] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing an Optometrist who works for MEC may involve the following steps:

[00123] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the process of allowing the registration of other staff who works for MEC into the system may involve the following steps:

[00124] Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms, in keeping with the broad principles and the spirit of the invention described herein.

[00125] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the frame and lens database system may track the inventory of available stocks of frames and lenses.

Further, the frame and lens database system may be able to create electronic customer orders, send invoices to clients and/or patients and tracking customer orders. The system may connect with a lens tracer to transmit data to optical labs for lens edging may be performed in the following steps. Once the patient’s clinical consultation may been completed and there may be a need for the patient to have new glasses and/or other optical aids for improving vision, then the optometry staff or optometrist may enter the patient data obtained from the clinical consultation into the database of Spectacle Frames and Spectacle Lens. Following entering the patient data into the database, the healthcare practitioner may help or recommend the patient to choose the most suitable optical frame and may suggest the optimal optical lens design. The summary report and invoice or quote may be sent to the patient or the patient’s family for approval. Once the deposit or payment have been received from the patient or the patient’s family, the order may be emailed to the lab for processing. The system may mark the job as being in progress. The database may be in communication with an optical laboratory or optical supplier and sends a job specification via email to the optical laboratory or optical supplier to manufacture the prescription specified in the job specification via a lens tracer. The database may be adapted to search for other optical laboratories within a predetermined distance from closest to furthest from the patient location. The optical lab may send finished cut lens products to the company. The product may then be packed and sent to the patient or consumer via SENDLE™. The system may integrate with SENDLE™ which may have the patient’s name and address. SENDLE™ may arrange a courier to pick up and deliver to patient. The system may email the patient and let them know the status of the package.

[00126] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may have a consultation page for which the health care professional can upload information about the consultation into the consultation page. The information about the consultation may be recorded as a sound and/or video from a device with recording capabilities such as a mobile phone, in which the recording can then be saved or uploaded into the system.

[00127] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may include mobile eye clinic software to assist the optometry staffs or healthcare professional’s daily tasks as a mobile service. The system comprises a communication module to communicate with a TYRO™ system for processing healthfund claims. The communication module may be adapted to connect the TYRO™ system over the Internet through wireless or Ethernet connection. Preferably, the YOMANI terminal is used for claiming Health funds. In one embodiment, the system connects to the YOMANI terminal through the Ethernet connection. For example, healthcare professional can connect the assigned TYRO™ EFTPOS™ terminal to the system. On the settings page under the healthcare professional or organisation profile tab in the system, the following steps may be performed: 1. Click the Add Terminal button near the TYRO™ under integrations 2. Select the TYRO™ setting level depending on the practice’s needs - there may be three levels: 2a. Group level: when all practitioners in the group or organisation use the same TYRO™ terminal and all payments are processed to the one account; 2b. Clinic level: when multiple practice locations use the one terminal and payments are processed to different accounts depending on the practice location; and 2c. Individual level: when the healthcare professional work in multiple clinics and may need to switch between a group terminal and another terminal. 3. The Merchant ID and Terminal ID may be entered and saved in the TYRO™ terminal’s configuration setting 4. Pair Mobile Eye Clinic and then perform the “Authorise POS” function on the TYRO™ terminal.

After the patient consultation session, the patient may need to pay for the services. The dispatched healthcare professional may bring the paired TYRO™ EFTPOS™ Terminal. The system may also integrate with TYRO™ EFTPOS™ terminals, preferably, a YOMANI terminal for health fund claiming and EFTPOS™ payments. For example, the user or patient may complete the following steps to process health fund claims through the TYRO™ terminal: 1. Click the TYRO claim button on the invoice in the payments section; 2. After entering or selecting your healthcare provider number in the Provider Number field, the user or patient may add any relevant service reference in the Patient ID and/or profile menu; 3. Click the Estimate button and swipe the patient’s health fund card in the paired TYRO™ Terminal and wait for the response and the gap payment amount that appears on the paired TYRO terminal; 4. Accept the claim, which updates the invoice with the TYRO claim amount; and 5. Process the gap payment through TYRO™.

[00128] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the system may include a calendar that allows healthcare staff to send out a link that has her availability so patients, patients’ family or facility staffs can book the healthcare professional’s time for consultation. The calendar may allow the next of kin and patient’s various healthcare professionals to arrange a mutual time that they could be present, if the patient may have cognitive function difficulties. Patient’s who may have cognitive function difficulties may require extra people to assist with the consultation in order to have a cooperative and reliable assessment. The system may allow a user to ‘schedule a visit’ which will take the user to a user interface form with the following fields: date of visit, which then prompts an add consultation slot button, in which the consultation slot button is clicked, shows the start and end time. Alternatively, when the consultation slot button is clicked, a time range selector that divides the time range into slots. An example of time range slots may be as follows: if a consultation time may be 20-30 mins long, selecting 1 lam to 12pm would create two consultation slots. After selecting the time, it will allow a user to save the selection and show the booking URL which will be added into the healthcare professional’s Google calendar. For example, the appointment page may display the following:

Appointments available for 3rd July 2017

Facility name: Arrunga

Address: 343 Kissing point

Click book on one of the consultation slots below:

10am-llam -BOOK 1 lam-12pm - not available 2pm-3pm - not available

3pm-4pm - BOOK

When BOOK button is clicked, the booking form may then be showed. The booking form may require the patient to fill in patient details, the person that book the consultation, the patient room at which the patient is scheduled to see the healthcare professional. When the patient or user clicks confirm, an email will be sent to the preferred healthcare professional and may be to the person or patient who booked the consultation. The consultation slot is marked as taken or booked in the database and/or marked on the healthcare professional electronic calendar such as GOOGLE™ calendar. The person or patient may be able to cancel a consultation by clicking on an opt out link provided on the confirmation email sent the to the person or patient who have booked the consultation.

The data model may have the following:

Schedule - Schedule ID - an integer - Visit date - date

Consultation Slot - Consultation Slot ID - an integer - Schedule ID - an integer - Start time - time - End time - time - Available - Boolean - Patient name - string (or patient ID) - Name of person making a booking - string [00129] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow the integration with the MyHealth™ Record feature to obtain the following data: Individual Initiation Authentication data, individual access token or user credentials data, patient demographic data, user access data, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) items data, Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items data, prescription and dispense list data from prescribe and dispense Clinical Document Architecture (CDA), allergies and adverse reactions data from Shared Health Summary, Personal Health Summary CDA Allergies section data, Updated Personal Health Summary CDA Allergies section data, Personal Health Summary CDA Medication data, updated Personal Health Summary CDA Medication Section data, document list data, document list metadata, and CDA document data.

[00130] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow users to write short action note and healthcare professionals may update progress regarding the patient’s progress. The system may also record the date and the author.

The system may allow all users to view, communicate and upload image and email documents, voice/video recordings for discussion.

[00131] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow other optometrists or medical practitioners to use or to be licenced the software. The Mobile Eye Clinic software name/logo could be changed to other preferred name with their preferred domain name, it may be a single tenant application or a multi tenant application. Multi tenant application may be a common practice for Software as a Service (SASS). The Mobile Eye Clinic software may run on a server and serves multiple tenants, in which a tenant is a group of users who share a common access with specific privileges to software. It may be an economical advantage to use multi tenancy to share maintenance costs, and speeding upgrades. Upgrades to the multi tenant application may have the changes instantly available to all users.

[00132] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow patients to write reviews of their preferred healthcare providers.

[00133] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, healthcare providers are able to create an account and have their own profile for marketing their services. The system may allow the patient’s written review to appear in the healthcare provider’s profile.

[00134] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow patients who have been to one or more consultations with a healthcare professional to write a review of their healthcare professional or healthcare provider. The system may notify patients to write a review or another review of their healthcare professional or healthcare provider after a pre-determined time.

[00135] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow patients to write a review once the patient have created their own profile page and is logged in.

[00136] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow organizations to have their own profile page and the system may allow to input financial detail.

[00137] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow uploaded summaries of referrals to be accessed in the referrals page the healthcare professional or other healthcare professionals. The system may also allow a user to input financial information and credit card detail for payment.

[00138] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow patients and/or healthcare professionals to upload documents and other information in the documents page. For example, patients may choose to upload their own medical detail, and healthcare professionals may choose to upload their professional details, qualifications, organisation or workplace information, and other miscellaneous information such as agreements.

[00139] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow a third party cloud-based accounting software such as XERO™ to integrate with the system for finance management and managing accounts.

[00140] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow healthcare professionals to connect to a third party web mapping service such as GOOGLE MAPS™ to assist the dispatch of the healthcare professionals to the patient or user, in which the patient or user have indicated the location or address at which the healthcare appointment will take place.

[00141] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the system may allow users such as patients or healthcare professionals to access the system using a computer program such as a mobile app when the user is on a mobile device. The mobile app installed on a patient’s mobile device may send user notifications to confirm clinic booking and also reminding patients that an appointment may be about to start after a predetermined time. The mobile app installed on a healthcare professional’s mobile device may send user notifications to inform the healthcare professional that there is an appointment with the patient and also reminding the healthcare professional that an appointment may be about to start with the patient after a pre-determined time. It may be appreciated that the pre-determined time that the notification appears to the patient or healthcare professional may be different. The notification may appear earlier for the dispatched healthcare professional than the patient. Since the system may be integrated with GOOGLE MAPS™, the map software may calculate an approximate amount time at which the dispatched healthcare professional may arrive at the patient’s destination. For the dispatched person(s), the mobile application may send a prepare-to-leave notification to the user around the calculated travel time prior to the scheduled patient appointment. The system may allow individual patients to choose and request clinic appointments. Google’s domain matching may suggest healthcare professionals to appear for patient to invite for registration if the patient has not selected or chosen their preferred provider. Once the services were provided, the patient may be able to rate the provider. Rating of the provider may appear on provider’s public profile for display. The invoice may be automatically generated once the service may be completed. The fee may be charged to the patient or the patient’s family or carer.

[00142] The present invention and the described preferred embodiments specifically include at least one feature that is industrial applicable.

Claims (19)

1. THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

   1. A system adapted for use in processing healthcare appointments by a user, wherein the system comprises: a server, associated with a database for storing patient information data and patient booking data, wherein the server is adapted to carry out a method comprising the following steps: receiving patient booking data from an input user interface; evaluating availability data of a plurality of healthcare service providers within a predetermined radius of a location of the patient; selecting an available closest healthcare service provider from the input user interface; booking the available closest healthcare service provider, wherein the patient booking data and patient information data is sent to the available closest healthcare service provider via the server; calculating a time of travel between the location of the patient and the available closest healthcare service provider via a map software; notifying the available closest healthcare service provider within a predetermined time to dispatch to the location of the patient.
2. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises scheduling the available closest service provider via an acuity scheduling module on the server to determine when the available closest service provider has been booked.
3. 3. The system of claims 1 or claim 2, wherein the method further comprises recording the patient data into the database.
4. 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises billing the user for at least one of selected from the group of: consultation fee, and prescription fee.
5. 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises integrating with a device adapted for processing at least one of selected from the group of: payment, and healthfund claims.
6. 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises searching and comparing the database for prescription availability data of a plurality of prescription suppliers within a second predetermined radius of the location of the patient.
7. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises creating a prescription order for a closest prescription supplier when the prescription is unavailable from a plurality of prescription suppliers.
8. 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises recording the acceptance of the prescription order into the database and tracking the prescription availability data.
9. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises sending notification to a mobile device of the user once the prescription is available.
10. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises recording in the database the prescription received by the user.
11. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the method further comprise notifying the user of a next appointment time.
12. 12. The system of any one of claims 3 to 11, wherein the recorded patient information data is at least one of selected from the group of: data, audio data, and video data.
13. 13. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the method further comprise requiring the user to register prior to booking the electronic healthcare appointment.
14. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises approving the registration of the user prior to booking the electronic healthcare appointment.
15. 15. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the plurality of healthcare service providers is in communication with the server.
16. 16. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein booking the available closest healthcare service provider uses an electronic calendar software. Yl. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the map software obtains real-time traffic data from a traffic server via the internet.
17. 18. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the electronic healthcare appointment is an optometry appointment; and wherein the healthcare service provider is an optometry service provider.
18. 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the patient information data comprises eye data relating to the patient, and wherein the optometry service provider is adapted to input new patient information data to the server.
19. 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the optometry service provider is adapted to order optometric prescriptions through the server based on patient information data.